Parting images from India

As our health has improved over the past few days we've been adjusting to not being in India. Our five weeks were eye-opening in a hundred ways and unlike anything I had experienced before. The size and depth of India would require a lifetime to get to know, but we were lucky to make inroads into a few small slivers of it. (And we read some great books that helped -- see the end of this post.)

Here are a few more images and memories from our time there.


Elizabeth and I outside a hut at the col at Triund, above McLeod Ganj


Elizabeth and Purnima staying warm as the scenery is ensconced in clouds...thank goodness for the supply of chai and fuzzy hats at the summit


Sunset over McLeod Ganj


Just another goat traffic jam along the road to Dharamsala


Informative murals at a school in Vashisht, a village above Manali


And pay attention when they point at things


A drowsy but very stylish cow outside the Vashisht hot springs



The final night of our week-long yoga course (four hours a day!) in Dharamkot we were invited to a little celebration at the home of the instructor's. Fighting back my innate distrust of hippie jam sessions we went, and were treated to a night of classical music (ragas) and lovely baked goods. The footage is a little dark but the harmonium and tabla come through pretty well.

Some books we enjoyed while on this leg of the trip have been:

Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God:Retracing the Ramayana Through India, by Jonah Blank
May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India, by Elisabeth Bumiller
The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor
An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie